Sony OLED company spotlight

Article last updated on: May 15, 2018

OLED (Organic Light Emitting Diodes) is a new technology that enables brighter, more efficient, thinner, faster and better looking displays. OLED panels feature better refresh rates and contrast than either LCD or Plasma - and can be made flexible and transparent.

Sony has been involved with OLED research, development and production for years, and can claim several OLED firsts: in 2004 they launched the world's first PDA with an OLED display (the 3.8" Clie PEG-VZ90), the world's first OLED TV in 2007 (the 11" XEL-1) and for a while they offered the largest OLED displays (the 24.5" BVM-F250 professional OLED monitors). Today Sony produces OLED TVs - using panels produced by LG Display.

Sony OLED TV

Back in 2007, Sony launched the "world's first OLED TV" (the XEL-1), although at 11-inch, it should not really be considered a TV - maybe not even a monitor. It was only made in small quantities and the price ($2,500) was very high. In February 2010 Sony stopped producing the XEL-1.

In January 2009, Sony unveiled their 'X' series OLED walkman. They claimed it was the best sounding walkman ever, and it's got the best display, too: a 3-inch 432x240 touch AMOLED. Sony has also used a large AMOLED in their NW-A840 walkman.

Sony's main product line is now smartphones - but the company has yet to release an OLED smartphone.

Sony OLED microdisplays

Sony are also producing OLED microdisplays, and have several such displays on the market, including a 0.5" XGA (1024x768) panel for digital camera EVFs and a 0.7" 1280x720 microdisplay used in Sony's HMD products.

The A8H series is based on Google's Android smart TV platform and features support for Apple AirPlay 2 and Homekit and Amazon Alexa. The A8H features Sony's Acoustic Surface and the company's X1 Ultimate picture processor, Pixel Contrast Booster and X-Motion Clarity. The A8H supports Dolby Atmos and Dolby Vision standards.

Both Sony and Panasonic announced new OLED TVs for 2020. First up, and most interesting, is Sony's Bravia A9S Master Series - the company's first 48" 4K OLED TV. The A9S is based on Google's Android smart TV platform and features Sony's Acoustic Surface and the company's X1 Ultimate picture processor among other features.

Sony also announced the A8H OLED TV range that come in either 55" or 65" sizes and support similar technologies to the A9S.

Sony announced two new high-brightness OLED microdisplays, the ECX336C and ECX335S. Both new microdisplays offer up a brightness of up to 3,000 cd/m2 - these are Sony's most bright OLED microdisplays ever (the previous ones were up to 1,000 cd/m2).

The ECX336C is a 0.23" nHD+ (640x400) microdisplay while the ECX335S is a new model of Sony's 0.7" Full-HD (1920x1080) display. Both will enter mass production in Q1 2020.

IHS Markit says that LG Electronics is the leading European premium TV (over $2,500 in cost) vendor, with a market share of 33.3% in revenues and 38.7% in sales in Q1 2019. LG's strong OLED TV sales helped it increase its market share up from 22.9% (revenues) in 2018.

Samsung is the second European TV maker, with a market share of 25.2% (down from 42% in 2018). Sony's market share increased to 25.5% (up from 21.5%). Together Sony, LG and Samsung took up 84.1% of the market.

The audience (38 AV enthusiasts) chose LG's OLEDC9 as the best TV of 2019, followed by Panasonic's GZ2000. OLED TVs were the best in all categories, except the bright-room performance, for which Samsung won first place with its high brightness.

Sony officially announced the pricing and availability of its 2019 OLED TV range. Sony's flagship TV, the A9G, will start shipping in May 2019. The 55" will cost $3,399, while the 65" model will cost $4,499. Amazon already lists the new TVs. The 77" model, which will cost $7,999 will start shipping in June.

The A9G offers "consumer reference-quality image" and features Sony's X1 Ultimate Picture Processor, Pixel Contrast Booster and an automated calibration mode (including a dedicated mode for Netflix). The A9G features Sony's Acoustic Surface Audio - which means that the TV stand doubles as a high end speaker. The TV is based on the Android TV OS.

JOLED announced that it has raised 25.5 billion Yen (around $228 million USD) from INCJ, Sony and Nissha. JOLED also announced that it has started to build post-processing module production lines at its Mobara, Chiba prefecture, plant. Nissha will also collaborate with JOLED in the area of OLED touch sensors.

B&H photo is now listing Sony's 2019 range of OLED TVs. There's no shipping date yet, but there are prices for all of Sony's 2019 OLEDs. The mid-range A8G will cost $1,999 for the 55" model and $2,999 for the 65" model. The high-end consumer reference-quality A9G will cost $2,799 for the 55" model, $3,799 for the 65" model and $7,999 for the 77" model.

Sony launched its Xperia 1, the world's first 4K OLED smartphone, at MWC 2019, and the company did not yet disclose the price or release date. Amazon now lists this new smartphone, with a $999.99 price tag (for the 128GB model). The shipping date is set at December 2019, but this is likely just a placeholder as Sony said it will ship the phone towards the end of spring (at around May).

The Xperia 1 features a tall 6.5-inch 21:9 3840x1664 AMOLED "CinemaWide" display which supportss HDR (BT.2020). The Xperia 1 also features a Snapdragon 855 chipset, 6GB of RAM, 64/128 GB of storage, a microSD slot and a triple camera. The phone is also waterproof (IP68) and it has a fingerprint sensor on the side.